Water
by Gender Outlaw
Summary: She has a lingering familarity with the sea-torn railing of the ship. —•— A random drabble connecting Konoha.


Shikamaru could stay underwater without air for up to ten minutes.

This was before he became a Shinobi.

One of the many techniques that Civilians don't benefit from is the ability to use _chakra _to manipulate their lungs into storing and preserving more air than what would normally be possible. _Some_ have even been able to gather air from the fleeting oxygen elements scattered throughout.

At the edge of his family's deer farm is a small pond full of tiny frogs and watersnakes.

He learned how to sneak off and hide under the murky surface when his mother's voice rang out like a brass gong.

Some things were just too troublesome.

* * *

Naruto was always seasick on the ocean.

It was a strange state to be in, because while his belly was filled with the spasms and unpleasant taste of the _need_ to vomit, he simply could not.

Kyuubi's traits worked too efficiently for that.

So instead, he would stand on the top of the mast, wind threading through his hair as he squinted his tearing eyes in response to the gusts.

Chakra held his feet steadfast to the pole.

The moving air flowing over him made him feel like he was flying. So, seasick or not, he would have found his way up to the top of that long beam anyway.

* * *

Sakura used to get queasy on the voyages - that is, until she began apprenticing to Tsunade. She has a lingering familiarity with the sea-torn railing lining the ship, and as she passes it by her head always follows the lines absently..

Naruto can see the faint glow of chakra out of the corner of his eyes sometimes when she is treating her stomach.

He doesn't tell her the light looks like moonlight to him. It makes him remember hollow times when the world was small and the grass still soft.

Naruto holds this information tight in his heart; it is precious to him.

He would not call her a goddess or deity of any sort, but she does act rather muse-like in some aspects, he thinks..

She would disagree.

* * *

Kakashi has read his book enough times to memorize it, line by line.

He knows what words are about to appear next before he even sees them. The pages, the scenes fly by in his head in a rapid succession of mental images - people, places, sun shining over a quiet town.. He recalls them randomly and out of order, seeing first what was most emotionally important to _him_.

He sees Naruto on the top of the mast, eyes closed to the wind and a pleasant expression on that face. Kakashi _could_ call him down, but he doesn't.

Instead he stands next to the Captain on the deck, holding his book in front of him like a mirror.

The Captain does not speak, and he does not reply. They watch the crew working, Sakura right in the midst hands tightly looped in coiling ropes.

Kakashi thinks idly of Sasuke.

* * *

Hana does not like the rain.

Sometimes it hinders her sense of smell by masking everything with sensation and the sound of thousands of tiny drums falling over the world. At other times, times that were few and fell mostly to her earliest years when she was unable to control the chakra to her nose..

Then, the rain smelled too _much_.

That water slid off and opened up what there was to smell until there was no way _not to_ smell it.

She stuck her bedsheets so far up her nose that she bleed for several days when the fabrics were pulled out. (The soft, enchanting and familiar smell of her own scent and her companion's...)

Besides which, Hana wears tight shirts and she does not like being ogled at.

* * *

Iruka needs no introduction.

He has nothing really tying him to the rain - he does not seem human in that way to many people, that he would stare out a window and watch the sun set.. But he is surely a man to be remembered. He stands at the head of the classroom drawn so high into himself that his chest actually seems to grow in size.

When he closes his eyes, numbers and words form a confusing dance that blurs his mind and makes him dizzy.

He sleeps through the day when the youngest kids are gone to recess. The nights are fleeting and very rarely filled with rest. Water builds in him, and he can only stop the leakage by waking.

* * *

There is a hole in the Hokage's tower.

It is not a security breach, but it lets the rain in when the skies pour. Sandaime noticed when first he saw water spreading across his papers and diluting the ink. Treaties and mission reports..

He really doesn't mind.

The slow droplets fill his cup for him. Which he drinks in a quiet sort of way.


End file.
